Wireless devices, including cellular telephones, are becoming increasingly popular. Public use of wireless communication devices has significantly increased over the last several years. For instance, the purchase and use of cellular telephones, pagers, and Personal Digital Assistants (“PDA”) have become common. To support the increased use of wireless devices, various wireless networks have been created, and expanded, to allow use of wireless devices in increasing areas of coverage. In general, wireless service providers enable use of the wireless devices by activating the wireless devices (upon purchase of the wireless devices). A wireless device typically operates by communicating with a wireless network to which a user subscribes through a transmitter/receiver within the wireless device.
A typical wireless network consists of multiple, low-power transmitters/receivers providing wireless service to a series of overlapping coverage areas referred to as cells.
Each cell operates within a specific set of frequencies, with a certain frequency designated as a control frequency used to manage the network. A Mobile Telephone Switching Office (“MTSO”) typically controls portions of the wireless network, managing a group of cells. A large wireless network may consist of several different MTSOs, each MTSO in control of multiple cells, and the MTSOs in communication with each other, either directly or through the Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”). Each MTSO will also communicate with the PSTN in order to connect calls from wireless devices to standard PSTN telephones, as well as calls from PSTN phones to the wireless devices.
A wireless device operating within the coverage of a particular cell receives transmissions from, and sends transmissions to, the transmitter/receiver providing coverage for the cell. As a wireless device user engaged in a call leaves one cell and enters another cell, a “hand off” of the telephone call is handled by the MTSO, such that the wireless communications from the user's wireless device are switched from the transmitter/receiver of the cell the user is leaving to the transmitter/receiver for the cell that the user is entering.
Wireless service providers typically provide wireless service to a user based upon a charge to the user for the time spent using the wireless service. In other words, the typical wireless service charges the user a set fee per month for a predetermined amount of time using the wireless device within that month. The wireless service provider usually charges substantial fees for use of the wireless device in excess of the allotted amount of time within the month. Additionally, certain telephone numbers called by the user of the wireless device may incur additional charges above the set fee, including for example long distance calls, calls to pay services, overseas calls, etc.
Consequently, there is a need for controlling the use of wireless devices.